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In today’s trading update the firm, which is involved in HS2 and Crossrail, said revenue growth in its buildings business will now also be lower than previously forecast.

Kier now expects the group's underlying operating profit for the current year will be around £25 million lower than previous expectations

The company also said the costs of its Future Proofing Kier turnaround programme are now expected to be around £15 million higher than previously forecast which it said in part reflects an acceleration of the programme following the appointment of Andrew Davies as chief executive.

Davies is due to reveal the findings of the strategic review on 30 July.

In November, Kier's Scottish arm won a £9.7 million contract to redevelop the University of Strathclyde's Wolfson building in Glasgow.

Work on the six-storey listed building is a part of a wider £15.5 million investment in the site to establish it as a leading UK biomedical engineering department. The work is due to start shortly and the building is due to be completed by early 2020.

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The company had also been tasked with the restoration of the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art following its first fire in 2014. But following the second devastating fire which has seen areas of Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow still cordoned off, Kier's £25 million contract was ended.

Kier also recently completed the multi-million-pound overhaul of two historic buildings for the University of Edinburgh.

John Moore, senior investment manager at Brewin Dolphin, said: “Kier is in a dark place. At the turn of the year the business set out its financials, trading performance, and future plans as part of its unsuccessful rights issue, only to now say that this information was largely wrong. It has broken trust with investors, which does not bode well.

"Comparisons will be made with the likes of Carillion and, indeed, Kier has lots of complex long-term contracts and individual subsidiaries which makes for an opaque situation where clarity and stability are desired. Where it goes from here is hard to say.”